You say that, and yet I am still left bored, confused, and angry by what I see on-screen during the prequels. Based on the length of your post it is clear that you put far more thought into this trilogy than Lucas ever did.

Here are the dramatis personae that have appeared in The Clone Menace so far. I used a simple browser-based fantasy-themed avatar generator; if you know of any better generators feel free to let me know.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi Knight tasked with the defense of the Alderaanian Kingdom from a clone invasion.

Templar Jinn: An elder Jedi and respected colleague of Obi-Wan. He is one of the few individuals alive aware of the existence of another, darker aspect of the Force.

Marya Organa: The only child of King Bail Organa and heir apparent for the Alderaanian throne. Her independent spirit is matched only by her devotion to the ancient Kingdom.

Grant Lars: A star pilot hailing from Tattooine who volunteered to defend Marya's kingdom, hoping to win her back.

Jaster Mereel: The supreme overlord of Greater Mandalore and veteran of countless wars of conquest. Mereel seeks to expand his holdings with the use of a clone army.

Bail Organa: Reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Alderaan and prominent advocate of clone abolition. Ironically he has now fallen under attack by a group of marauding clones from the Outer Rim.

From a majestically tall window in the throne room, Bail peers through a pair of elegantly adorned binoculars usually used for the viewing of chariot races. The King beholds a force of Mandalorian landing craft deploying their troops just inside the city’s perimeter walls. These ships resemble the tower shields used by legionary swordsmen of Alderaan’s pre-industrial era. Shafts of light in the crafts’ bellies disembark squads of heavily-armored clone soldiers, where they whip out their blaster rifles and form up for battle.

One of the Custodians advises Bail to step away from the window. Bail replies with a question of how long the Custodians can hold off the Mandalorians. Only long enough for the King to retreat to the Redoubt, the guard replies. He then says that the explosive charges lining the secret passage have been armed; as soon as the King has reached the other side they will be detonated. This will cause a cave-in which will prevent the Mandalorians from finding the Redoubt.

Bail decides that the people of Alderaan need a committed leader, even in a state of occupation. His abandonment of the Palace for a safe hiding spot outside the city would sap his people’s will to resist. Whatever the outcome of the ground offensive, Bail will stay in his Palace. The Custodians exchange stunned and apprehensive looks...then they resolutely declare that they will carry out their protective duties onto death.

At the open-air entrance to the Palace, Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives upon a platoon of Custodians taking cover within strategically-placed alcoves and behind fine sculptures. Their weapons are trained at the locked gate which is being slowly burned away from the other side by a Mandalorian siege laser. The soldiers’ nervousness is palpable. Obi-Wan draws his blaster pistol.

The locked gate finally breaks down into an ashen pile of debris and dozens of armored Mandalorian soldiers storm through, their blaster rifles loudly firing into the group of Custodians. Obi-Wan lands a bulls-eye on the first clone to emerge through the opening. The blue-robed men return fire and fell a handful of clones for each man they lose, but morale amongst the defenders starts to decline when a Taung clone brutally drags a Custodian aside and slices his arm off with a vibro-knife. The entire group of Custodians opens fire on this clone soldier; he falls down as a smoldering pile of flesh and armor. The Custodians falter in the pace at which they return blaster fire.

Kneeling behind a broken pillar and ducking to avoid lasers, Obi-Wan warily darts his eyes back and forth amongst his embattled comrades. The Jedi Knight shuts his eyes and calms his breath. He calls upon the Force to form a web of pathways between his mind and those of the men around him.

One of the Mandalorian battlecruisers is critically damaged by a ground cannon salvo. It erupts in flames, hundreds of clones aboard rushing to their damage control stations. They are completely unwilling to spare their own lives lest they lose their place in the warrior’s afterlife. A thruster nacelle snaps off and disappears in an explosive flash due to the pressure change in re-entering a planetary atmosphere.

In the Palace war room, General Kenobi receives a report from Lieutenant Raffe that the falling Mandalorian cruiser is on a collision course for the Palace. The war room is nested deep underground and is thus secure from such an attack, but King Bail and his Custodians residing in the Palace above will surely be obliterated in the impact.

General Kenobi abruptly departs from the war room. He makes his way to the lock separating the war room from the Palace and then arrives at an open air vista showing the lush greenery of Alderaan. Lumbering herd creatures feed on the reed fields west of the capital complex. To the east lies the face of a gleaming lake, wide enough that it appears to be an oceanic shore. Kenobi bounds upward along the crenellations of the Royal Palace, his Jedi sensory abilities allowing superhuman proficiency in climbing the tall structure. He reaches a viewing platform at the tallest spire of the Royal Palace and beholds an apocalyptic sight in the sky.

A half-dozen Mandalorian battlecruisers drift in the distance, the flashes of light surrounding them indicative of the raging celestial battle. But one of the battlecruisers is so close that Kenobi can feel the life signatures of the crew members onboard.

Billowing smoke lines mar the baby blue sky, trailing from a durasteel hulk propelling itself at full throttle towards the Alderaanian seat of government. Kenobi calls on the power greater than himself to imbue his hands with the strength to move mountains. The stone tiles under his feet develop cracks just when Kenobi brings up his outstretched hands in the direction of the falling starship. The metallic mass audibly creaks and strains as its course is redirected by Kenobi's mystical abilities. The immolating craft shifts its vector a few more degrees before Kenobi reopens his eyes and collapses to his knees.

The ship zooms past the Palace complex and descends into the large lake. Kenobi hears a loud crash. Massive waves heave upward upon impact and the ship's aft compartment tips upward like a whale, the axe-like structure resembling the tool of an executioner. The once placid waters are now churning with activity and littered with bits of starship debris.

Winded and nearing collapse, Kenobi hears the voice of Raffe in his commlink. The lieutenant tells his General that the ground defense cannons have expended their energy reserves and the Mandalorian ships are closing in for a ground assault on the capital. Kenobi gathers himself and makes a leap to a ledge many meters below. Before signing out he tells Raffe, “This is the day we save Alderaan.”

Grant issues an order to his fighter wing, Home Red, to circumvent the battlecruiser screen while the other wings (Home Blue, Home Green, and Home Gold) advance towards the battlecruisers under the cover of ground defense cannon fire. He relays the coordinates of the incoming battlecruisers to Raffe. Kenobi issues the order to fire salvoes of cannon bolts at the Mandalorian fleet. Glowing red lances of energy strike out towards the Mandalorian battlecruisers, just barely skirting the flight paths of Home Blue, Green, and Gold. The three swarms of Z-95 Headhunters open with laser fire at the undersides of the Mandalorian battlecruisers. Turrets on the battlecruisers swivel to meet the incoming fighters and let out bursts of effervescent particles. The hulls of the large ships are pockmarked with hot craters, most from blaster impacts but also some from flaming Headhunters crashing headlong into their havod alloy plates.

Jaster Mereel surveys the battle from the bridge of the Kyr’Amudh, witnessing colorful streaks zip across the darkness of space. Three Headhunter wings dart about in confrontation with his battlecruiser force. He orders his Taung lieutenant to provide the location of the fourth Headhunter wing, but the officer says they have dropped out of the fleet’s subspace scanning range. Mereel says that such a thing is impossible, only to have his suspicion confirmed when the ship’s sensors detect an incoming fighter wing approaching from the flagship’s aft section. Mereel realizes that these fighters masked their subspace signatures in his ship’s engine exhaust. He orders the nearest two battlecruisers to assist in destroying Home Red.

Piloting his Headhunter with white-knuckle determination, Grant Lars’ Home Red wingmates strafe the Kyr’Amudh’s bridge with blaster fire. The local shields absorb the blows, strings of electricity dancing across the straining defensive field.

Grant dives towards the Kyr’Amudh's to inspect the ship’s cargo. Grant sees a large mechanical assembly with a flat foundation and a series of landing legs clasped against each other in a folded position. Grant contacts General Kenobi, telling him that the flagship is carrying some sort of prefabricated structure designed to be dropped onto the planet’s surface from low orbit.

Down in the Palace’s war room, Kenobi swivels around to face the primary tactical display, manned by an emancipated clone and officer of the Home Guard ground crew named Covis. Covis tells his General that Home Red’s sneak attack on the Kyr’Amudh has delayed the progress of the Mandalorian fleet; the other three fighter wings are drawing the fire of the battlecruisers, but at the cost of heavy casualties. Kenobi directs an order to the ground defense cannon crews to consolidate their fire on each battlecruiser one at a time.

The diplomatic cruiser veers off-course to avoid the missiles. Jinn stands behind Marya, who is focused on piloting the craft. His hand rises and he closes his eyes. The first salvo of concussion missiles fired by the cloakship scatters in many directions, some of the warheads being set off in impacts with each other. Marya makes a hard swerve. As the cloakship lets loose another volley of missiles and then closes in for the kill with its keel-mounted turbolaser, Jinn clenches his outstretched hand into a fist. The missiles explode in close proximity to the cruiser, knocking off one of the wings. The dismembered wing strikes the Mandalorian cloak ship, which catches fire and explodes.

Unable to maintain their course towards the starport or even extend the landing gears, Marya crash-lands the cruiser into a barren, sandy area utterly devoid of civilization.

Cut to Alderaan.

Inside the war room of the Royal Palace, General Obi-Wan Kenobi takes his seat at the command chair. He is clad in the traditional plate armor vest and pads of the Jedi Knights, studded leather stretched between the hard blaster-resistant plates. Surrounding him are officers tapping at displays, orbital maps and diagrams displaying predicted avenues of attack. Kenobi orders his number one, Raffe, to provide a situational report. Raffe tells Kenobi that the flagship is protected by a screen of battlecruisers and that the fleet’s trajectory is directed at the Royal Palace; all ground defense cannons are charged and ready for battle and Home Guard fighters are in formation in the upper atmosphere.

Kenobi contacts Bail Organa via hologram. Bail sits on his Throne surrounding by his blue-robed, blaster-armed Custodians. Kenobi tells Bail to join him in taking the secret passage leading from the Royal Palace to the Redoubt in case the clones mount a ground assault on the capital. Bail agrees and switches off the hologram. Kenobi contacts Grant Lars, leader of the Home Guard fighter squadron, who tells his General that the Mandalorian battlecruisers have unsheathed their turbolasers. At the back of Grant's fighter, Cufour chirps an affirmative. The time for battle has come.

On the bridge of the Mandalorian flagship Kyr’Amudh, General Jaster Mereel peers out a window towards the lifebearing world of Alderaan. His gray-skinned face is flanked by fleshy tendrils emanating from the top of his skull, marks of the long-feared Taung species. The tendrils end just past his armor-plated shoulders. A silver cape is draped over his traditional Mandalorian armor, which is covered in amulets and carvings that indicate his apex position on his homeworld’s military-social hierarchy.

The smaller battlecruisers of Mereel’s fleet form an advance guard in front of the Kyr’Amudh, These ships resemble blood-colored battleaxes flying through space. The Kyr’Amudh looks like an enormous beetle, its precious cargo housed in the “thorax” of the beast.

A Taung subordinate greets Mereel with the Mandalorian salute. He has the exact same features as countless other beings on the ship. The clone informs Mereel that a diplomatic cruiser has been spotted leaving the system under the protection of Alderaan’s Home Guard.

Mereel says, “What of our cloakship? Is it in pursuit?” The clone replies with an affirmative. Mereel offers a twisted smile and turns around to face his other subordinates. They heed their honored leader. “My brothers, Alderaan will soon be ours. May the Core Worlds fall to the might of Greater Mandalore!”

Cut to the planet Kessel. The dismal world is a pockmarked sphere hewn from unforgiving metals and packed to the brim with glitterstim spice, one of the most ubiquitous commodities in the galaxy.

The diplomatic cruiser makes an approach for the spaceport at the world’s equator. But from behind appears the Mandalorian cloakship, deactivating its cloaking device. This catches Marya and Jinn off-guard.

Marya takes the helm and Jinn taps into the Force. The cloakship lets loose a barrage of concussion missiles.

Lately I've been putting together an alternate Episode I. It's the result of some examination of the Internet's views on what the prequels could have been. Below is the summary of where the movie begins. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the end in further posts. I will continue to make edits to existing posts in order to streamline this outline as much as possible.

The galaxy has three parts. They are the Core Worlds, the Colonies, and the Outer Rim.

Most of the Core Worlds are members of the Old Republic, the major exception being the Kingdom of Alderaan. Alderaan lies at the meeting of many hyperspace lanes leading into the Core Worlds.

The Colonies have a minority population of Republic outposts. The rest of its systems have historically belonged to other polities such as the Tionese Hegemony.

The Outer Rim is a vast expanse of space controlled by despotic rulers (such as Greater Mandalore) and crime syndicates (such as the Hutt Cartel).

War has enveloped the galaxy. The Colonies have been subjugated by clone warriors loyal to the Outer Rim dictator Jaster Mereel, leader of Greater Mandalore. Years ago he purchased cloning technology from a mysterious benefactor rumored to be from the Republic. Now his forces stand poised to make a decisive strike against the Core Worlds, the heart of the Old Republic.

Just as foreign clones threaten to conquer the Republic, so too do domestically grown clones enact guerilla warfare against their former masters. The Republic Defense Force, a professional military organization composed entirely of volunteers, is stretched across many systems at once, putting down uprisings of once-servile Republic clones.

The Jedi Knights have used their mysterious powers to eliminate Mandalorian raiding parties in the Colonies. They have kept the Core Worlds safe from Mereel, but there are those in the Republic Senate, such as the wealthy aristocrat Theo Palpatine, who warn that even the powers of the Jedi will not be able to ward off the Mandalorian clones indefinitely.

It is in this climate that we witness the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Clone Menace.

The start of the film occurs in the throne room of Alderaan's royal palace. It is an expansive room with a high, arched ceiling. Murals adorn the walls and between each of the tall windows stands a unique sculpture made of the finest Alderaanian marble.

Fearing an imminent invasion, King Bail Organa meets with his daughter Marya, his friend and honorary general Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Kenobi's Jedi colleague Templar Jinn. He orders Kenobi to coordinate defensive operations against the incoming Mandalorians, then he asks Templar Jinn to use the diplomatic cruiser in a nearby hangar bay to spirit young Marya off of her home planet. Marya protests this but Bail insists that if the Mandalorians decide to execute him, then Marya must live to continue the royal bloodline. She and her guardian Jinn part ways with Bail and Obi-Wan.

Wipe cut to Marya's diplomatic cruiser being escorted away from the planet. The fighter escorting her is a Z-95 Headhunter piloted by one Grant Lars and his droid counterpart Q4-M9. They share some banter and reminiscence that clues in the audience that they recently ended a romantic relationship, but that the fire between them is not entirely extinguished yet.

The ships get a report that Mandalorian battleships have encroached on Alderaanian space. Grant turns his Headhunter away from Marya's cruiser to join the defense. Marya and Jinn make the jump to hyperspace towards Kessel.

Putting aside the Lucas Prequels, what is your alternative conception of the Old Republic-era Jedi Order? Below I will break this question down into a series of key points. Elaborating on these points will prove crucial to rewriting PT as it is the Jedi Order which must be unraveled and destroyed to make way for the story of the OT.

How many Jedi Knights exist in the galaxy?

What is the basis of Force-sensitivity (innate or acquired)?

What proportion of Force-potentials are in the Jedi Order?

By what process does a non-aligned Force-sensitive become a Jedi Knight?

What sort of distinction exists between Jedi Knights and Masters?

What other Force-sensitive organizations exist?

Do Jedi Knights work alone or do they collaborate? How centralized are they?

Are the Jedi bound to any dress or behavioral code?

Where is a Jedi based? As in, where does s/he spend time when not on peacekeeping missions?

Although he was only introduced and killed off in TPM, I think there is an interesting conceptual direction that a writer can take the character of Qui-Gon Jinn. Normally I don't like using elements of the Lucas PT in my brainstormings, but he comes the closest to being interesting out of all the Lucas PT's characters. My idea for an alternative Qui-Gon is called "Templar Jinn".

He's an elder Jedi who becomes obsessed with rooting out and exterminating the Dark Side of the Force. He accuses the rest of the Jedi Knights of being complacent in their quest to bring peace to the galaxy, primarily because he sensed the hand of the Dark Side in the events of the Clone Wars (which would be a completely separate event from the rise of the Empire in my timeline). He goes rogue, a light side fundamentalist, basically.

Anakin Skywalker goes on a quest to find and capture Templar Jinn before he can further tarnish the name of the Jedi Order. But when Anakin gets there Templar Jinn refuses to be taken in again and they have a lightsaber duel. It is this lightsaber duel which irrevocably starts Anakin down the path to becoming Vader. After a lengthy fight, Anakin cuts off Jinn's arm.

The mortally wounded Jinn lays upon Anakin a revelation which is just as mindblowing as the I-am-your-father thing that Vader said to Luke in ESB. I'm still trying to figure out just what this revelation might be, but it has to be something that completely sours Anakin's opinion of the Jedi. Then Anakin executes the maimed Templar Jinn. I envision this fight being the climax of Episode II.

In my first few years I saw the OT on tape countless times, so I did get a little bit of the pre-TPM era to form my tastes. I was in the target demographic for TPM during its theatrical release, if the whole "it was made for kids" thing is taken at face value. My elder brother, a child of the mid-80s, had me really convinced that this movie was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. When we saw the promotional materials with Darth Maul we play-dueled with lightstaff curtain rods and made lightsaber clashing noises each time they met. When he saw the movie he still clung to the Maul coolness and I thought the movie had a lot of colorful action going on but I could tell even then that something was missing that was present in the OT. I could not have articulated it at the time. It was only years later in between high school and college when I saw the RedLetterMedia reviews that my suspicions were confirmed. Before then I was convinced that there was something about it I just didn't "get". To answer OP's question, my realization that the prequels sucked happened in separate stages, reaching its full realization in 2010.

I wrote the Clone Reaper to be a rough equivalent to the Death Star from A New Hope, a Mandalorian super-weapon that our heroes must defeat at all costs. During the Clone Reaper campaign, we witness a young Anakin Skywalker leave behind his old life and take his first step into a larger world.

I'm intending for there to be more Jedi in this story than just two obvious ones (Anakin and Obi-Wan), namely the Templar Jinn character that I described in the thread "Light Side Divided". In fact, in my current draft of this story, Anakin and Obi-Wan do not meet each other until the third act of the film.

The Life Code thing will be revealed at some point in this film or perhaps the next as a load of BS cooked up by Palpatine. He started the rumor in order to create the chaotic conditions conducive to his rise to power.

What do you all think of the Life Code? Has there been something like it the EU? It seems very Blade Runner-esque to me, which is pretty much how I imagined the Clone Wars panning out pre-AOTC.

I'm working a new backstory for the prequel era and would like some feedback about the following take on the Clone Wars.

Starting in 259 BBY, clones were produced to perform labor deemed too hazardous and unpleasant for Republic citizens. Republic law prohibited the use of clones as soldiers. These clones had lifespans of four years once released from their rapid gestation chambers. The Republic entered a golden age on the backs of its clone laborers, its citizens freed from drudgery and able to produce untold wealth and culture.

In the waning years of the golden age, a corrupt Republic minister sold cloning technology to Warlord Jaster Mereel, military dictator of the Outer Rim world Mandalore. Mereel's engineers quickly adapted the technology to a military end. On a neighboring world they built the Clone Reaper. The Reaper absorbs vital nutrients from a planet's crust and atmosphere to create a vast army of mindlessly devoted soldiers, leaving behind a drained husk of a planet.

Mereel used his new army to wage a war of conquest against the Tionese Hegemony from 43 to 38 BBY. At the same time, rumors began to emerge in the Republic Senate that there existed a Life Code, a genetic "key" capable of "unlocking" true-length lifespans for all clones. This caused clones all over the Republic to revolt against their masters, encouraged by the prospect of finding the Life Code and by the example of Warlord Mereel's clone soldiers.

The Republic's volunteer military, the Republic Defense Force, is embroiled in putting down unruly clones. The RDF, severely burdened with domestic security, all but ignores the Republic colonies that fall one by one to the Mandalorians. In the end, it is only a conscript army, the Stormtroopers, that proves large enough to simultaneously engage the Republic clones and the Mandalorian clones.

The war reaches its climax in 35 BBY. By this point the Jedi are involved, and a young pilot named Anakin Skywalker becomes a key player in the final days of the war.

====TIMELINE-900 Yoda is born. "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not."-80 Obi-wan is born. "Surely he must be dead by now" "Don't underestimate the power of the Force." Obi-wan becomes Yoda's apprentice "[...]Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."-60 Anakin is born ?-? The Clone Wars begin ? Palpatine is elected Chancellor in his 50s (Chancellors' average age at their first mandate) ? War brings to a centralization of power in the hands of Palpatine. "Dark Times". ? The Jedi take part in the war. "You fought in the Clone Wars?" "Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight the same as your father."-40 Anakin becomes a pilot. "He was the best star-pilot in the galaxy"-? Obi-wan serves Oragana in the war "General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars." Obi-wan meets Anakin and is amazed how strongly the Force is with him. "When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot. But I was amazed how strongly the Force was with him." Yoda cannot train Anakin ("too old"?) Anakin becomes Obi-wan's apprentice. "I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi." Anakin and Obi-wan fight in the Clone Wars. "You fought in the Clone Wars?" "Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight the same as your father."-? The Clone Wars are over ? Palpatine refuses to give up his powers and charges the jedi of treachery. ? Anakin leaves his training to face Palpatine (a plot?), but is defeated. "When I left you, I was but the learner" "If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil." "Do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor, or suffer your father's fate, you will." Anakin is turned to the Dark Side (how? brain-wash? lust for power?, convenience?) "You father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. [...] the good man who was your father was destroyed." Anakin becomes a royal under the name of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith. "He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader."-50 The Republic becomes the Empire. "[...] in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire." The Jedi Order is disbanded by the Emperor "the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire." The Jedi are persecuted ? Obi-wan flees in "exile" and assumes a new identity. "I haven't gone by the name Obi-Wan since oh, before you were born."-20 Luke and Leia are born. Their birth is kept secret. "To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born." Luke is rised by his uncle. Leia is initially rised by her mother, before her death. "Leia... do you remember your mother? Your real mother?" "Just a little bit. She died when I was very young." Leia is adopted by the Oraganas "That is the reason why your sister remains safely anonymous."-0 "Star Wars"

This is a really neat and concise outline. I have a question about it: Did Anakin go evil, spend decades as Darth Vader, and then conceive two children with "Mrs. Vader"? That's interesting. Most interpretations of the prequel timeline that I've read about have Mrs. Skywalker discover her pregnancy while Anakin is still a good guy and a loyal Jedi. Your interpretation shakes that up a bit! It puts a very different image in my mind of who the mother was if she knew she carried the children of the Dark Lord of the Sith.

I've brainstormed ideas for some other Toho monsters. It takes some work to make their origin stories fit the realistic tone of the Legendary verse, but it's possible for most of them. King Ghidorah is a real stretch, though.

1) On Saturn's moon Titan, there are micro-organisms that feed off the abundant methane deposits; sometimes they agglomerate into a gigantic amorphous mass. Millions of years ago a meteorite threw off a section of Titan's surface into interplanetary space, carrying a colony of these micro-organisms. The dormant microbes rode an asteroid into the inner Solar System, where they eventually fell into Earth's gravity well.

Between the events of Joe Brody's terrible day at Janjira and the MUTO incident in San Francisco, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico got a new pump jack with which to dig into a seafloor oil deposit. The drill disturbed the resting site of this mysterious hydrocarbon-consuming organism. It surfaced and caused catastrophic damage to the oil rig. When the creature was tracked by Navy vessels and placed under surveillance, MONARCH gave it the codename "HEDORAH".

2) When Joseph Stalin ordered the expansion of the gulag system into northeastern Siberia, his prospectors encountered an enormous rhinoceros-like creature sleeping on the Central Siberian Plateau. Though docile at first, the repeated encroachments by gulag construction teams agitated the beast until it went on a rampage, killing many hundreds of laborers and a few Communist party officers. The creature displayed no interest in eating the humans it killed, but it was observed using its nose horn to break chunks of rock off of mountain sides and eating the hard bits that fell out. The gulag camps were repurposed into providing ores to feed the creature and keep it from going on another rampage.

When Khruschev became the leader of the USSR, he ordered the creation of D.R.E.K.A., a clandestine scientific-military unit whose purpose was to study the creature and if possible weaponize it.

Reports of an anomalous creature in Siberia reached Washington after the CIA ordered an overflight of the region. M.O.N.A.R.C.H. determined that the creature was a "lithitroph", feeding on mineral matter, as opposed to the radiotrophs that were the MUTOs and Godzilla.

Here's another concept: implementing Mutual Assured Destruction in Civ 6. When there are X number of nuclear missiles present in the world, then the first time any of them get launched, the game enters MAD Mode. In MAD Mode, all players give orders to their nuclear arsenals. These commands are then enacted simultaneously, resulting in a nuclear holocaust. Then the game ends and the winner is determined by score. Obviously the scores will be affected by the apocalyptic devastation of MAD, so choose your targets wisely! Destroying enemies' Wonders and population centers goes the longest way towards reducing their endgame score counts. This would add a ticking time-bomb element to the late game. Will you be able to launch that spaceship before the nukes start flying?